Travels in America: Biggs Junction, OR

 Our travels through central OR were good and I wanted to spend a bit of time hiking some times at Mt. Hood.  It didn't work out.  That was the first day of poor weather and Mt. Hood was completely invisible.  We did drive to one area with a lodge and there was even a bit of snow on the ground.  This is advertised as having lovely meadows which I am sure is very likely.  I did a lone, very short hike to a waterfall, walking in cold and wet  conditions.  We headed off to Deschutes State Park and were able to get a campsite, but barely!  Tons of fisher people there.  As the wet weather continued, we heads to Cascade Locks and hiked a wee bit of the Pacific Coast Trail to a quite lovely waterfall.  It's been very dry in the area, and I was surprised to actually "see" Dry Falls, pictured below.  

We opted for a second night at Deschutes and decided to go out to a restaurant I'd seen a billboard for on the I-84.  It's an Indian restaurant in a very small place.  What a pleasant surprise!  We biked the 8 miles from our campground to the "bus" that is the take out restaurant.  A local writer had an article about the owner which was posted on their billboard.  The owner decided that since over 20% of truckers in the US are of East Indian descent, he figured they might like a "taste of home".  I got the impression that the truckers order their food online and give the cook an idea of when they will arrive.  Biggs Junction is a "truck stop" on the junctions of the I-84 and SR 97 that runs N/S through central OR.  In the western part of the US the number of East Indian truckers is more like 35%, according to the article.    We loved the food so much that we headed back there the next day after taking a short side trip over to Cottonwood Canyon State Park.  That was more of an exploratory venture than anything else but we did like it and plan to visit the park some time.  We will definitely plan to travel to Briggs Junction again and eat authentic Indian food.  Highly recommended.